Sourdough

[Littleguggi]

Has anyone attempted to make their own sourdough? Where do you even start?

Or has anyone attended one of those masterclasses where they teach you how to do it?

Use this recipe/ method https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/no-knead-sourdough-bread-recipe

And watch you tube videos on shaping. Getting the tension right is a skill that takes practice.

Bread Tip 101 - Beginners Sourdough Loaf, Start to Finish — Bake with Jack

I found it helped to get the kit - baskets, a baking stone (cheap granite worktop saver) and a big enough mixing bowl and scraper.

If you ask around you might find someone local to give you a starter, it's easy to share.

It's the only way I've made bread for over 15 years. I find it dead easy, much easier than using yeast.

I make my starter by combining wholemeal flour with water (about half and half) until it's bubbly (a couple of days usually). If too much water rises to the surface, I add a bit more flour. I then make a small loaf, as the first one is usually a bit ropey. The starter then keeps in the fridge for ages if necessary

To make the bread, I take the starter and put it in a bowl with a mix of flour and warm water to activate it (if it's been in the fridge). After a few hours, when it's all bubbly, I use half of it to make the bread, keep the other half in the fridge for the next time.

My standard bread recipe is flour, enough water that I can mix it with a wooden spoon, salt and starter. If I want a firmer loaf, I gradually add flour until it's firm enough to hold it's shape, but if I'm happy to make something shapeless like a focaccia, I just leave it at that.

Leave to rise for a few hours, then shape and bake.

Thanks guys really helpful, reading about it sounds so complicated and I definitely learn better by watching someone do it/ coach me through it! I wonder if I can find any good YouTube tutorials!

Honestly, the best way to learn is to just go for it! It's not actually massively complicated, and the worst you can get is too stodgy bread.

How do you activate the starter and bread rise in a cold kitchen (live in an old old house)

So do I. I put mine in the airing cupboard this morning.

You have to increase the proof time or I stuck it in the boiler room which is always warm, in the coldest part of winter mine will take 48 hours at least (depending on how long I cold prove it for).

if I can do it so can you! This was mine this morning. So good that I have to not make them too often 😆 I did try and make my own starter but failed - I may try again one day. I’m the end my friend gave me some of their established one so it’s worth asking on FB or Olio or somewhere like that if anyone can give you some of theirs or you can buy some.

I follow this recipe and it’s worked very well for me.
https://foodbodsourdough.com/the-process/

I make a good few loaves a week, you need a nice active starter and once that bit is done it's much less faff. I keep my starter out on the side and feed it daily so that it's ready to go whenever I want it. It is a really small amount though so on days I want to make a loaf, I start by feeding some of it up to get really active, I aim for 100ish grams of starter, so use 30g of starter, 35g flour, 35g warm water. Leave for 3-4 hours to get bubbly and then make my loaf.

I find a lot of recipes (especially from the US) have too much liquid so I reduce the liquid content. You do learn the right quantities with time and experimenting as supposedly the humidity of different houses makes a difference. For me, 500g flour (mixture of string white and others), 280-300ml water, 100g starter and 10g salt. Once you get the basic loaf mastered, you can play around with shapes, additional ingredients, autolyses etc.

It sounds complicated but I find it quite relaxing and you can always use the fridge to pause things at most stages.

EDIT- my best ever tip is to bake in a le creuset (aka dutch oven). Preheat the oven and pot, when ready score the loaf, put in the pot with lid on and into the oven. 30 mins at 230c, lid off and another 15 mins at 200c. Works for me every time and always a beautiful crust.

@missshilling - genius! I used the oven light but both bulbs have gone now!! Been needing to find a replacement for ages!

Can anyone tell me what a start is when referring to this recipe? In very basic terms if possible!
Please and thank you.

@hollyblueivy https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/08/make-your-own-sourdough-bread-starter-recipe

But honestly the best way is to get some from someone who already has a starter. I asked in our local sourdough bakery.

Helpful guide to sourdough bread for beginners for anyone who was overwhelmed by all of the information like I was.

I did a workshop and really got the bug. All the bread was great from the start but then something started going wrong. The starter didn’t bubble or increase in volume much. I have a cold house so put it on the airing cupboard . That helped a bit but the bread got more and more solid, heavy and tasteless. I have more or less given up. I’ve started again with different starters but after a few loaves it starts to get heavy and leaden again. I use white flour with a proportion of rye. My starter is rye. Has anyone got any idea what I’m doing wrong? It worked fine for months and now it’s just gone to pot.

Hi everyone, I've decided to play with sourdough and have a couple of questions having got immersed in all the different recipes and methods etc!

I've got my 3 day old starter working away in the cupboard and I'm hoping it will be ready early next week.

Do I really need a banneton or can I just leave the dough in any old bowl to do its final prove?

I've read recipes that tell you to put it in a Dutch oven/enamel roaster or similar to bake, others that just have the dough on a baking tray. Is this just baker preference or does one method produce a superior loaf?

Thanks for any tips you can give.

You don’t need any special equipment but some are nice to have like a banneton and dutch oven ☺️. You could line a bowl with a tea towel and sprinkle liberally with rice flour instead of a banneton. I use a Dutch oven (basically a cast iron casserole dish as I find it stops the dough spreading out) but you can easily just use a baking tray.

Sourdough was Serious Eats lockdown project.

www.seriouseats.com/search?q=Sourdough+

Thank you @Rainbowsallaround230 I have a cast iron casserole dish so I'll use that.

That is some serious info there!

Another newbie question .. why does the amount of starter vary so much between recipes? The serious eats linked by pp has 28g starter, the recipe I was planning to use on the Cotswolds flour website has 50 g starter, bake with Jack has 100g starter - you get the idea. Thanks

The less starter you use, the slower the fermentation time, the more sour flavour. Whereas when more starter is used it means it ferments quicker so is a milder taste. The recipe I follow uses 50g of starter for 500g flour.

@Rainbowsallaround230 thank you!

Thanks to some patience and your tips I baked my first sourdough! Not sure I've got the classic 'crumb' right, but it was delicious 😁

Please tell us how you did it!

@Mylazycatspyjamas

I followed Elaine Boddy's master recipe here: cotswoldflour.com/pages/sourdough-master-recipe

My starter had doubled in size over a few days, but wasn't very bubbly/volcanic.

I'm very pleased with my loaf! 😁